CHAPTER 49

CHAPTER 49

LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW OF HIS OFFICE located on the sixth floor of the headquarters of the Central Bank of the European Union, its president, Julius Germaine, was deep in thought. Considered a current patron, the tycoon loved arts and science. He also had the largest collection of abstract art in Europe.

In his ardor for the progress of science, mainly in the field of anthropology, Julius Germaine had used his influence so that the famous National Geographic magazine published on its cover in November 1999, the sensational discovery of a fossil half bird, half reptile that had been discovered in China. According to the magazine, with the discovery of this fossil, the link between birds and reptiles was definitively proven, definitively proving the theory on the evolution of species, developed by Charles Darwin.

The scientific world applauded his magnificent performance, Germaine was promoted to the thirty-third degree in the Masonic order. Four months later, after a very complicated blood ritual, he was admitted to the order of the enlightened, thus placing himself at the service of the Brotherhood of the Serpent.

However, Archaeoraptor was subjected to a detailed CT scan that ended up finding huge irregularities in its structure. With further investigations, it was concluded that the famous discovery was the result of an elaborate fraud by paleontologists aided by Chinese smugglers.

Cars were passing quickly below, when his meditation was interrupted by the young secretary:

—Dr. Germaine, the directors of Luxor have arrived.

Julius turned to her with a smile.

— Fine, Ellen, would you please show them to the conference room.

THE DIRECTOR OF LUXOR opened the notebook next to Julius:

— Here it is! I present to you the BioChip. Three years after the first presentation, our engineers developed new improvement studies: the BioChip will now have fixed protocols that will allow secure electronic transactions, as you had requested — he said while opening a briefcase on the table and taking out a silver micro-chip, handing -The.

— Goodbye credit card, documents, cash, GPS, routine preliminary exams.

— All this in a tiny object, we call it nanotechnology.

— I call this the future.

Julius Germaine was overjoyed as he picked up the chip:

— So this is the BioChip, the smart chip that will serve as an identity document and allow banking flow at the same time?

— Exactly — smiled the executive of the technology company — name, address, marital status, affiliation, absolutely all the data that may exist on a certain individual along with the totality of his banking transactions. This, however, is rigorously controlled by a cryptographic code that will allow data access only to previously determined authorities.

— And the equipment for decoding the data?

— Production of the equipment is now complete, we have two hundred million decoders in our warehouse in Lausanne, Switzerland. We are just waiting for the political issues to be resolved for its acceptance into the European Union.

Germaine looked at the executive with some concern:

— Are these decoders also prepared for the second phase of the BioChip?

The director tried to reassure him:

— You don't need to worry about that, the decoders were built in such a way as to accept the reading of the microchip to be implanted in the user's hand or forehead, in the second stage when the credit cards are no longer used.

And that will be very soon...